AA Thought For Today - October

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AA Thought for the Day

October 27

Came to Believe
I can't say upon what occasion or upon what day
I came to believe in a Power greater than myself,
but I certainly have that belief now. To acquire it, I had only to stop fighting
and practice the rest of AA's program as enthusiastically as I could.
- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 27

Thought to Ponder . . .
I saw, I felt, I believed.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H O W = Honesty, Open-mindedness, Willingness.

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~

Humility
"Moved by the spirit of anonymity,
we try to give up our natural desires
for personal distinction as AA members
both among fellow alcoholics and before
the general public.
As we lay aside these very human aspirations,
we believe that each of us takes part
in the weaving of a protective mantle
which covers our whole Society
and under which we may grow and work in unity.
We are sure that humility, expressed by anonymity,
is the greatest safeguard
Alcoholics Anonymous can ever have."
c.1952AAWS, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 187

Thought to Consider . . .
Humility is not thinking less of yourself,
but thinking of yourself less.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
S W A T = Surrender, Willingness, Acceptance, Trust

*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*

Grave Nature
From: "Foreword to Second Edition"
The spark that was to flare into the first AA group was struck at Akron, Ohio in June 1935, during a talk between a New York stockbroker and an Akron physician. Six months earlier, the broker had been relieved of his drink obsession by a sudden spiritual experience, following a meeting with an alcoholic friend who had been in contact with the Oxford Groups of that day. He had also been greatly helped by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, a New York specialist in alcoholism who is now accounted no less than a medical saint by AA members, and whose story of the early days of our Society appears in the next pages. >From this doctor, the broker had learned the grave nature of alcoholism. Though he could not accept all the tenets of the Oxford Groups, he was convinced of the need for moral inventory, confession of personality defects, restitution to those harmed, helpfulness to others, and the necessity of belief in and dependence upon God.
2001, AAWS, Inc., Alcoholics Anonymous, pages xv-xvi

*~*~*~*~*^ Grapevine Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"It's funny how life is lived forward -- and understood backward."
Vail, Ariz., October 2005
"Living Life Forward,"
No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book & Twelve N' Twelve Quotes of the Day ^*~*~*~*~*

"When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could
not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that
either God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is or He
isn't."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, We Agnostics, pg. 53~

There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which
is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in
everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to
investigation.
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Appendice II, Spiritual Experience, pg. 568~

If we still cling to something we will not let go, we ask God to help us be willing.
-Alcoholics Anonymous p.76

But when I became willing to clean house and then asked a Higher Power, God as I understood Him, to give me release, my obsession to drink vanished.
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p.63

Misc. AA Literature - Quote

We who have traveled a path through agnosticism or atheism beg you to lay aside prejudice, even against organized religion. We have learned that, whatever the human frailties of various faiths may be, those faiths have given purpose and direction to millions. People of faith have a rational idea of what life is all about.
Actually, we used to have no reasonable conception whatever. We used to amuse ourselves by cynically dissecting spiritual beliefs and practices, when we might have seen that many spiritually minded persons of all races, colors, and creeds were demonstrating a degree of stability, happiness, and usefulness that we should have sought for ourselves.

Prayer for the Day: Love - Higher Power, Remind me that: Love is patient, Love is kind. Love is not jealous, it does not put on airs, it is not snobbish. Love is never ruse, it is not self-seeking, it is not prone to anger, neither does it brood over injuries. Love does not rejoice in what is wrong, but rejoices with the truth.There is no limit to love's forbearance, its truth, its hope, its power to endure.